Head start for Test selection as Redbacks fight back

He might still face a mountain of toil to save South Australia from defeat, but Redbacks skipper Travis Head has inked his name on the team sheet for next month's first Test against India after a second century in as many Marsh Sheffield Shield matches.

Head's unbeaten 104 today followed his game-saving 171 against Tasmania 10 days ago, the first time he has reached the milestone in back-to-back Shield appearances.

And his unbroken 162-run third-wicket stand with opener Henry Hunt (55no) offers SA some hope of batting out the final day against a dominant Victoria although the Redbacks require a 192 runs with eight wickets in hand to force their opponents back into bat.

Since SA were rolled for 200 on the opening day, the pitch at Glenelg Oval has served up runs by the record-load, most of them posted by Victoria openers Marcus Harris and Will Pucovski who now hold the distinction of fashioning the most productive partnership in 128 years of Shield cricket.

But the nature of Head's second back-to-the-wall ton in as many games belies his reputation as a stroke-player rather than a stoic and will encourage selectors as they ponder an expanded squad for the upcoming four-match Vodafone Test Series against India.

In the shadow of a huge first-innings deficit and with his team in now familiar early strife, the Test vice-captain refused to be cowed by circumstances and reached his hundred from 155 balls faced shortly before stumps which SA 2-172 at the close of day three.

His mastery was underscored by the comparative scoring rate of Hunt, who was on three when joined by his captain and posted a grafting half-century (from 188 balls faced) the delivery after Head celebrated his century.

While his Test berth was hardly in peril having scored a century and been named player of the match in Australia's penultimate Test outing before the global pandemic hit – against New Zealand in last summer's Boxing Day event – the form of batters in the early stages of the Shield season means places are hotly contested.

Head joins his Test teammate Marnus Labuschagne and WA pair Shaun Marsh and Sam Whiteman as batters to have scored multiple hundreds in the first three rounds of the Shield season thus far.

He also faced some creative counter-attacking from his rival skipper Peter Handscomb, who looked to transform the left-hander's off-side strength into a potential weakness with some 'funky' field placings.

With Head in the 90s, Handscomb had debutant quick Mitch Perry bowling around wicket with a slip, two gullies and fielders stationed in nominal catching positions at forward point and cover point.

However Head remained patient, and made his way from 95 to triple-figures in singles before staunchly seeing out the day's final six overs without incident.

The yawning disparity between the two teams over the preceding two and a half days was symbolically self-evident in a 10-minute window shortly after lunch.

Having laboured through more than 136 overs to claim the first two wickets in Victoria's imposing first innings of 3(dec)-564, the Redbacks then surrendered their first couple within three overs at the crease.

Starting out his team's second innings 364 in arrears and after almost two days in the field, SA opener Conor McInerney offered a suitably tired non-shot to the first ball of Scott Boland's second over that took the inside of the indelicately dangled bat and crashed into leg stump.

Five balls later, and fresh from a seven-ball duck in the first innings, Brad Davis propped half-forward with similar foot-weariness to a delivery from Boland that was angled in but held its line to provide keeper Seb Gotch with a straightforward catch.

So having sat down for 10 minutes after marshalling his shellshocked troops around the field for four and half sessions, Head made his way to the wicket with another match to save.

The 26-year-old did not need to dig too deeply into his memory to find the inspiration and method required to haul his team from the mire.

The manner in which Victoria's new opening pair Harris (239) and Pucovski (255no) maintained concentration and motivation throughout their record-raising first-wicket partnership of 486 confirmed that not only was the Glenelg track bereft of demons, it showed few outward signs of life.

The three wickets SA's dispirited attack eventually captured were the direct result of Victoria's chase for quick runs in the morning session rather than the bowlers' capacity to induce a false stroke.

That had been the case in the day's fourth over when Daniel Worrall (1-119 on return from a calf injury) found the edge of Harris's broad bat when he dug in a short delivery from around the wicket.

It was the same line of attack that Harris later admitted he has struggled to combat throughout his career before being exploited ruthlessly by England's seamers during last year's Ashes, and it seemed it would again prove his undoing (albeit with 216 runs already to his name).

But the chance that carried shin height to Callum Ferguson at slip was spilled, and it wasn't until Harris dropped to his knees in an attempt to ramp the ball over the slips cordon 10 overs later that he was dismissed from a catch that kissed the face of his bat.

After that, Handscomb (33 from 48 balls) and Nic Maddinson (22 from nine) enjoyed some free-wheeling centre-wicket batting practice before Maddinson played over a looping full ball from Head – the first delivery after lunch – and Handscomb called an end to his team's fun.

Pucovski thus remained undefeated having faced 386 deliveries for his highest first-class score and has become the first player since the late Phillip Hughes to boast an average above 62 across the first 17 matches of a Shield career.

But the ever-present fear caused by the string of concussion blows Pucovski has suffered over recent years was uncomfortably revealed when the 22-year-old tumbled to his left to make an otherwise innocuous save in the gully late in the day.

The ball had glanced from the face of Hunt's bat but kicked awkwardly from the surface as Pucovski sprawled to intercept it, and it struck him high on the left shoulder causing immediate concern from his teammates before the fielder reassured them he was fine.

South Australia XI: Henry Hunt, Conor McInerney, Brad Davis, Travis Head (c), Callum Ferguson, Harry Nielsen (wk), Liam Scott, Chadd Sayers, Daniel Worrall, Wes Agar, Lloyd Pope

Victoria XI: Marcus Harris, William Pucovski, Peter Handscomb (c), Nic Maddinson, Matt Short, Seb Gotch (wk), Will Sutherland, Scott Boland, Mitchell Perry, Zak Evans, Jon Holland